Two Less Tortured Hearts
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day 853a: After Rachel returns from seeing Shelby, she tells Sam how it went, and he makes a realization.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 40th cycle. Now cycle 41!_

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><p><em><strong>INTRODUCING "CHEAT SHEET" - <strong>If you want to know ahead of time when a certain series will be updated next, just reassemble the link below and check out the list, save it, print it, bookmark it, whatever you need!  
>Go to: <span>gleekathon [dot] tumblr [dot] com [slash] cheatsheet<span>_

_** UPDATED WITH CYCLE 41 CHEAT SHEET ** Check it out to find out about **shift days**, starting in cycle 41!_

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><p><em><strong>This is a shift day [see above].<strong> There will be another upload this afternoon: Flying Solo, chapter 6._

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><p><strong>"Two Less Tortured Hearts"<br>Rachel/Sam & Nell (OC)  
>Sam &amp; Nell series, following "the Ties that Bind" <strong>

Sam only meant to sit with Nell and a story book for a while and it wasn't until he felt someone gently shake him awake. He opened his eyes to find Rachel standing over him, smiling. He looked down and Nell was still sound asleep. "What time is it?" he blinked.

"After four," she told him.

"So it went well?" he asked, getting up to put Nell in her crib, following Rachel out into the living room.

"Actually, it went well," she nodded. "Not what I expected, but good, maybe better than I thought it would." They sat and she turned toward him.

"So what happened, did you tell her… what you wanted to…"

"Not exactly," she shook her head, at ease. "When I got there, Shelby was out. But then Joanie was there, with Beth, and… we hung out," she shrugged.

"That's good," he nodded.

"She's actually pretty nice," Rachel smiled. "And I talked to her, about some of what I was going through, I guess… And I realized maybe I had it all wrong, how to handle this 'mom and me' thing. I figured we'd be better off taking it slow. So when Shelby got home I had lunch with her, and Emmett, and the girls," she revealed.

"How was it?"

"I guess you could say Joanie was a lifesaver. Without her, the whole thing could have been… awkward and just bad. But she got us talking, and after that we had a good time," she smiled and, seeing how happy she was, he smiled back.

"So happy for you," he nodded.

"You got me over there," she took his hand. "You got me to go."

"You wouldn't have gone if you didn't want to," he pointed out, and she nodded slowly. "So are you going back?"

"At some point, yeah, maybe not right away, give things time to settle down…" she paused, looked to his hand in hers.

"So you're okay… waiting, not asking?" She looked back to him.

"I've waited my whole life," she shrugged. "And, yeah, I have these things I want to tell her or talk to her about, but I can focus on that… or I can spend time with her, actually get to know her as a person, not as some… maternal figure," she declared. "I think… at this point that ship's sailed, so…"

"Takes more than genetics to make a mother," he nodded, and she smiled. "You staying for dinner?" he asked, and she nodded.

"Need some time with Miss Penelope Evans," she admitted and he smirked.

"Well Her Royal Shortness is sleeping right now, but I'd be happy to take her place until she wakes up."

"I guess that'd be alright," she slowly nodded, which he imitated.

"So basically as soon as she's up you'll forget about me?" he teased, and she played along.

"Hate to break it to you, but she is cuter," she lowered her voice and he made to look hurt.

"So I'm not cute?"

"Well…" she dragged along. "What you are I wouldn't feel right associating with a baby girl…" she led him to his own conclusions.

"Ah… I see…" he saw her smirk grow and he had to laugh. "Well, you too," he told her, holding a moment before moving in to kiss her. She needed zero convincing, leaning back to hold him closer. It wasn't as though they would have gotten much further, still when they heard the sounds of Nell's cries it was a pain to have to stop. Their eyes crossed and that said it all – 'Yep, duty calls.' Sam got up, helped Rachel to her feet and they headed in to find the very awake 'Miss Penelope.' Feeling his hand at her back, Rachel guessed this was her cue.

"Hey, you're alright, it's all good," she moved to pick Nell up out of her crib, hold her safely in her arms. "Hello," she smiled to her. "Want to do like last time? Want to dance? You know this one…" she moved her out into the hall – 'more space to move' – and did something he liked to call a waltz, because that was what it looked like to him, not like he knew what qualified as a proper waltz. "There, we're smiling now, yes?" Rachel hummed, smiling back to Nell, no longer crying. They were all the way down the hall and he kept at the bedroom door, watching his girlfriend dance his daughter around, the girl who'd been crying a moment ago…

He watched them, and when he said the words, when he said 'I love you,' it wasn't so much that he meant for her to hear it, only that he was realizing it. For a moment though, he paused, because she'd paused too, and it could have been in her 'dance,' or it could be that she'd heard him and been surprised. Her back was turned, so he couldn't see… If she did hear, she didn't say a thing.

Now that Nell was awake there was no way around her grabbing their attention. There was some play of peek-a-boo, and Nell's favorite game, wherein Sam turned into the 'wild beast' preying on the innocent two. Eventually it was time for dinner, and after playing some more Nell was going to bed, good until morning. With Rachel there the CDs took the night off, Nell getting her lullaby from the genuine article.

Finally the room was quiet, darkened, except for the glow of the night light, the whirring of the mobile. Neither of them had yet dared to move, and then her hand had moved over his, on the crib's edge. He looked to her.

"I love you, too, Sam," she nodded with a breath, a smile. He was briefly stunned, surprised… So she had heard, more than that, she'd heard, and she reciprocated. He smiled back, urged once more to lean in and kiss her, but then remembered where they were, and he nodded toward the door. They looked to Nell, saw her still sleeping, and they exited. The door closed, they turned back to one another.

"So, good day?" he smiled, and she laughed, leaning against him.

THE END

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><p><strong>AN: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
><strong>**In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
><strong>******always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!******


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